Have you ever heard of or tried a SueVee temp controller? There's one on eBay, and it looks a lot like the Auber. My husband and I really want to try out the idea of Sous Vide before investing a whole lot, and I'm not so handy wiring together the small electronics.

Have you tried using a dishwasher?
I read that that worked quite well.

While it is possible to cook some foods in a dishwasher, it is nearly impossible to control temperature in such a way as to provide the even cooking that makes sous vide cooking so attractive. Also, because it's hard to control temperature, this introduces more uncertainly with regards to control for food safety.

If you are connected to rain water or have little regard for the environment, and you have a decent hot water system you can do as I do.

Adjust the mixer tap or taps in a sink/laundry tub until the water coming out is just above the temperature required (to compensate for heat loss to the sink). Drill some holes in the plug so that water can escape.

Put your sealed foodstuffs in the water bath and off you go! You'll need to experiment with the holes in the plug and the amount of water coming in until the water bath maintains it's temperature throughout the cooking time.

Hi Michael, I have bought a kit of PID controller, SSR and sensor. The wiring diagram indicates a resistor parallel to the probe but gives no value. As a mechanical engineer/colour chemist/antiques dealer I am at a loss.
D M L-B

Hi Michael, I have bought a kit of PID controller, SSR and sensor. The wiring diagram indicates a resistor parallel to the probe but gives no value. As a mechanical engineer/colour chemist/antiques dealer I am at a loss.
D M L-B

Could the wiring diagram showing the probe and resistor using the pair to represent a thermister or thermocouple? In theory, the thermo sensor works by altering the resistance, right?

No, I don't think there will be any problems but you won't be able to hold too much water in that device, so you'll be limited to cooking small bags or eggs. It's a great start since you can use it to cook small portions and perfect your technique and upgrade later to a larger cooking device and use the same SVM1600.

What a pity I did not get aware of this awesome blog earlier!
I started sous vide with the water pot in oven method as described in two eGullet posts: Temperature stability with a water-pot in an electric convection oven and Sous-vide without buying expensive equipment.
Fortunately my oven allows temperature setting from 40C upward in 5C increments. With an oven that does not allow settings below 75C, one may use a more shallow pot without lid (allowing more evaporation cooling) and of a material reflecting heat radiation like stainless steel, aiming for a larger temperature difference between air and water. A disadvantage of shallower pots is (besides poorer temperature stability) a tendency of bags to float because bags cannot be arranged in a vertical position; a workaround is to include glass beads or marbles in the bags to weigh them down.
In 2009 I got my first PID (SousVideMagic) to control an electric 9L soup warmer, allowing unattended long time cooking, later I got a newer SVM with a FreshMealsMagic in an 18L polycarbonate container; the FMM would even allow to cook larger items in a bath tub.

How would a "thermal cooker" or big thermos chest do as a sous-vide cooker with no attention? It would start out at a higher temp, but the progression down as heat is lost would be steady and slow. Would this be effective and easy if recipes were adjusted?

How would a "thermal cooker" or big thermos chest do as a sous-vide cooker with no attention? It would start out at a higher temp, but the progression down as heat is lost would be steady and slow. Would this be effective and easy if recipes were adjusted?

See http://egullet.org/p1777861 and http://egullet.org/p1758780 :
It can be done for short time cooking. In a 28L Campingaz beverage cooler, I measured a temperature decay of 0.036°C/min, roughly 2°C per hour. One may well start 2-4°C above final core temperature, as the outer layers will anyway be overcooked by subsequent searing.